Otto Suwen – Thorough Watch

Re:Zero Episode 66 (Season 3 Episode 16) – Analysis and Important Details

Posted on March 28, 2025 | by anicritic | Leave a Comment

I thought the episode was a satisfying conclusion to this season although there was one detail I hoped would be revealed that didn’t. Included in my post this time will be an update on how I believe Al relates to Subaru as I’ll be including something I didn’t in my previous write-ups.

The episode opens with Beatrice and the group fighting Lye, and she notes to Otto she can use up to five magic crystals as she needs to save one to bring back Puck. Two of them were used up as they fought with Lye eating the names and memories of three of the White Dragon’s Scales mercenaries with the special effect of them being shattered and reforming showing that they had entered the same state Rem and Joshua are in. When Felt returned, Lye attempted to eat her name but faced serious negative effects with his eyes becoming bloodshot and him feeing nausea that resulted in vomiting given it seemed to be a fake name Rom gave her in childhood. This gave them the opportunity to use two of the remaining of three crystals to fire the special metia Felt brought to them that appears to have once belonged to Echidna judging by Beatrice’s reaction to it. Lye was defeated, but he somehow swapped places with his sister, Rui Arneb, who gutted Dynas’s legs and then did the same to Otto when Rui had moved to strike Beatrice with Otto getting her out of the way. Apparently, one of the powers of the Sin Archbishop of Gluttony is to transform into people you’ve eaten before although we have yet to see Lye or Roy do that since Rui had taken the form of a man before going into her true form. Rui realized that Felt herself didn’t realize that her name is not her true name upon interacting with her. Rui notes that she’s backing off, most likely due to her Gospel’s instructions, reasoning that since Lye was beaten to a pulp and since Roy just does as that woman, who I assume is Capella, says. Rui says it’s not whether you’re a gourmand or a foul feeder as what you eat isn’t important, and it’s who you eat with that’s important. Beatrice, with only one magic crystal she can use, since one must be saved for bringing back Puck, decides not to pursure Rui although Felt really wanted to even though they were clearly outmatched.

If it wasn’t clear from Rui’s interaction with them that she was holding back severely, I’ll make it clear now. It’s clear with how Regulus’s Gospel making him believe he’d meet the Emilia camp again despite it not happening until the fourth loop of Arc 5 is that Gospels are meant to keep the world on a particular path as I have long believed rather than being an object that makes the holder’s goals/dreams come true. This was also likely why Capella went to attack the government office the heroes had made their base of operations when if she had stayed with Theresia and Kurgan both Wilhelm and Garfiel would’ve both 100% died and why Capella was certain that she accomplished all that she had needed and was leaving, when her pursuing Al, Felix, and Anastasia would’ve resulted in one or more of them dying, and for this very reason, Rui left as well when she could’ve butchered them all since Beatrice only had one magic crystal left aside from the one she was saving for bringing back Puck. I believe people who have treated Re:Zero as a serious story are meant to pick up on this, but people who expect the usual from most isekai series that don’t have much happening on a story front don’t realize that Re:Zero is a deep story and that it wants you to draw conclusions from these things happening multiple times in succession. You have to actually think critically when you watch Re:Zero. After all, Roswaal’s not-quite-Tome of Wisdom was basically a tool meant for Echidna to keep the world on a particular path, and it wouldn’t be a stretch if the Gospels had a similar purpose.

Kiritaka then announced that they had taken control of all four control towers and had driven away the Witch Cult. After Subaru and Emilia make their way to the government office seeing that it had been destroyed, they are reunited with Beatrice, and Subaru princess carries Beatrice, leading to Anastasia saying that Subaru can be a boy after all, which Emilia affirmed, although I’m not sure Emilia affirmed that in the same way Anastasia did. First with Ricardo joking earlier in the season that Subaru seduces little girls and now this bit with Anastasia showing that characters are openly mocking Subaru about him attracting little girls knowing that Subaru isn’t really that type of person as that’d be inappropriate, which isn’t a bad thing of course given how serious of a show Re:Zero can be.

Subaru and co. then pay a visit to Garfiel, who is proud of Subaru for showing off what a man he is by saving Emilia. He’s in good spirits given he joked that he didn’t want to hear about his condition from Subaru of all people, which Emilia could see, and Beatrice resorted that he’s feeling too good about himself given it’s usually when he’s nice and quiet that he’s actually suffering. Mimi then barges in and has her way with Garfiel with Otto saying that he really should’ve acted like a man who’s hurt. Otto is expected to be able to recover from his injury, and Subaru wishes that he’d consult with him before leaping into danger since they’re friends after all with Otto replying that there’s no way he could just sit back and do nothing when Subaru had so much on his plate, ESPECIALLY since he’s his friend, and that just shows why Otto is such a good person to have on your side. Otto says he’s sorry that Gluttony got away but that they did gain something from this since Priscilla captured Sirius.

They start interrogating Sirius, and when Subaru asks what made them think about demanding the not-quite-Tome of Wisdom and the artificial spirit, as in Beatrice, Sirius remarks that she doesn’t even care to think about what the others were thinking and that they only gathered here ’cause of the instructions from their Gospels. When Subaru puts it out that there that they follow their Gospels so religiously to revive the Witch of Envy, Sirius retorts by saying she doesn’t give a damn about that and that the only one she loves is Subaru with her going up to him to lick him, which Emilia struck her hard for doing so. When Beatrice urged them to leave, Sirius started singing horribly since she had realized the power of song from Lilliana, and Subaru says that she shouldn’t consider Liliana and her singing to be the same with it being completely different. Fortuna then taunts Subaru, saying the situation is the same with him in that he’s not Petelgeuse but with both his soul and body and Petelgeuse’s melding together with her goal being to drag Petelgeuse out from within him although it’s hard to say whether this is pure delusion or a fact. Although I do believe Petelgeuse exists in a pocket dimension within the vicinity of Subaru’s soul, I do not believe their souls have literally melded together. Before they leave, Sirius warns them that Gluttony will be after Subaru. The subs say Gourmand, Foul Feeding, and Satiation, but given the words are used to describe their representation of the Gluttony sin, I feel it should be Gourmet (since Lye wants Gourmet food, which is why he makes his prey feel strong emotions to juice them up and fights them as if to prepare them well for being eaten), Foul-Feeding (Hyphen for grammatical purposes), and Satiation are the right terms to use, and I will use them moving forward since I’m not going to expect Crunchyroll to have any sort of consistency moving forward. I’m guessing Sirius got wind of this ‘when she compared the text written in the Gluttony Archbishop’s Gospels compared to her own ’cause Lye, and Roy and Rui by extension, have been after Subaru since Lye ate Rem’s memories, which is part of the reason he was so hyped for a confrontation with Subaru in Episode 59.

After they walk out of Sirius’s cell, Al replies that they got nothing aside from making them feel gross, which Subaru shoots down immediately, leading to Al saying he sure knows how to make those freaks like him, which suggests that Al is not Subaru himself since it alludes to him not being able to ingratiate himself with some of the Sin Archbishops whereas Subaru has, possibly showing that he was a failed hero of the story. Beatrice then tells Subaru to not get too friendly with Al, which Al is disappointed to her after he helped wake her up, calling her Beako, which she remarked she only lets Subaru do, and Emilia thanks Al for helping her pass a message to Subaru, which Al reacts well to, similarly to how Subaru said in Arc 2 that he’s the type to like to be rewarded for his efforts. When they emerge from the underground, Beatrice reveals that Al visited her and got her Kiritaka’s magic crystal, which is what woke her up but that he wouldn’t tell her anything about how he got it, and that soured Al on Beatrice even though Subaru does the same thing to others. It was only after Emilia spoke well of Al that they were forced to admit that Al’s not a bad guy.

I have to mention this regarding Al now. I don’t believe he is Subaru himself since there is a good deal against it, but I do believe that he and Subaru both originally came from the same soul. Ever since Episode 22, A Flash Of Sloth, I have been looking up the names of Re:Zero’s characters since that title could’ve referenced multiple things from that episode, showing that names are important in Re:Zero. Subaru’s dad is named Kenichi, which means ‘wise man’. Subaru said in Episode 16 that Flugel’s Tree was planted by a wise man centuries ago, and while this wouldn’t mean something in a different show, its presence in a show with Re:Zero’s long-term planning suggests that Kenichi himself might be Flugel. As for the time period in which Flugel existed, Petelgeuse apologized to Flugel-sama in Episode 43 for taking in the Sloth Witch Factor, which shows that Flugel was from the same time period Satella was from.

Episodes, 18, 25, and 38 show that Subaru has dormant memories of Satella as shown by how Puck indirectly revealed in Episode 18 the number of shadow hands Satella could generate to Subaru by asking Petelgeuse summon a thousand shadows if he truly wants to kill him, half of what Satella could (two thousand), Subaru using a number associated with Satella (two thousand) to indicate his appreciation for Emilia in Episode 25, and Subaru suddenly having an upswelling of positive emotion for Satella in Episode 38 that led him to say that he’d save Satella after she asked him to love himself and then some day come kill her, which shows that Subaru and Satella may have a past history together.

Given we know Echidna succeeded in creating a soul clone of herself with how Echidna spoke in her own voice in Ryuzu Shima’s body in Episode 49, it wouldn’t be a surprise if Kenichi, if he is Flugel as I speculate, also did that as well and Subaru and Al were both split off from Kenichi’s soul, and Kenichi made his sons his soul clones, and that would explain why Al and Subaru both call Beatrice ‘Beako’, not ’cause they are the same person but because they were created from the same soul. It’d also explain why Subaru has dormant memories of Satella despite it not being possible for him to have lived at that time, why Al also likes being rewarded for his efforts, why he failed when Subaru succeeded, and why he didn’t know about Capella’s powers.

When the group reconvenes without Julius and Ricardo, Anastasia, or whoever she is, reveals she is against letting Sirius live, which upsets Felix since Sirius is their only lead on how to save Crusch. Anastasia doubts they’ll get anything useful on Gluttony or Lust from Sirius, but Subaru disagrees and doesn’t think it’d be a total waste of effort although he does understand she’d uneasy about keeping her in custody. Wilhelm then shuts Felix down for making a fuss of things. Reinhard also takes Subaru’s side and says he’ll transport Sirius to the castle since this is a rare opportunity to learn about the Witch Cult. Then the topic comes to Lust’s victims, and Felix says that they can’t be healed since they’re creatures that’ve been completely remade. Priscilla suggests giving the people turned to flies death since they’d probably prefer that, and when Subaru starts to protest, she calls him a fool and that ideals that are all talk have no value, which leads to Emilia saying she’ll handle that by putting all of Lust’s victims in cold sleep, and Priscilla backs down after seeing Liliana’s exuberant confidence in Emilia and even says she’ll make Emilia her rival after she does, probably ’cause she was again as I said in my write-up for an earlier episode saying things that were stressful to others to bring out the best in them.

As dawn breaks, Kiritaka thanked Subaru for saving the city, and that he was had been fully prepared to die until he heard Liliana’s song. We get shots of all the relevant parties and then have Subaru thank Subaru and for Reinhard to say it’s a tremendous honour to help a friend, probably since Subaru treats him like an actual person like others instead of a weapon.

Subaru and Emilia are then happy that Lusbel and Tina are safe, and Emilia says that they have to celebrate that since everyone worked so hard to make that happen. Subaru then sees Subaru, who is wounded in a lot of ways and has lost an arm. When he makes a remark about Julius, Ricardo doesn’t respond, but Subaru sees Julius all by himself in the shadow of a building, and Julius is astounded that Subaru remembers him since Emilia doesn’t. This shows that Roy ate his name, which rewrites reality as if no one ever remembered his existence. I don’t believe Julius’s possessions were also erased given how three members of the White Dragon’s Scales broke into pieces of glass and reformed into their current state of being in suspended animation, showing that they had become something fundamentally different than before. As Puck revealed in Episode 26, if a Sin Archbishop of Gluttony eats your memories, you lose your memories, your name, your existence erased, and if both your name and memories are eaten, you become a shell of who you were in suspended animation. Given even Rem’s possessions disappeared when she had been erased by the White Whale, your possessions probably don’t disappear unless both your name and memories are eaten.

What this shows is that Subaru has a resistance to Authorities for some reason. After Unseen Hand was used in his presence once, he was able to see Petelgeuse’s Authority the next time he saw it being used. When the White Whale, which Puck referred to as Gluttony in Episode 18, erased Rem, Subaru was the lone person who remembered her, which showed even back then that he had a resistance to the Gluttony Authority. When Rem was again erased by Lye, he still remembered her, proving that the White Whale was either made or modified somehow to have its mist have a similar effect to the Authority of Gluttony. After Sirius used her Authority on Subaru, in subsequent loops, it took longer and longer for him to fall under her control. This latest incident shows that Subaru still retains his resistance to the Authority of Gluttony. I don’t know where this resistance comes from though and expect it will be made clear towards the end of the series.

Anyway, with Season 4 being confirmed to be in production, I eagerly await to learn more about Re:Zero’s fantasy world and the aftermath of Julius having been forgotten. I also wonder what is up with whoever this Anastasia is. This season was fun and a refreshing change of pace compared to previous seasons.

Re:Zero Episode 65 (Season 3 Episode 15) – Analysis + Important Details

Posted on March 21, 2025 | by anicritic | Leave a Comment

This was my favourite episode of Season 3 so far. It had very compelling fights ’cause the fights themselves made you care about the characters either directly or indirectly due to the Sin Archbishop of Gluttony’s powers, more compelling villains since Regulus was just a noob with an OP power who was just evil in contrast to Lye and Roy, interesting foreshadowing, and character writing that is consistent with what came before.

The first two scenes need to being looked at as a whole given how one interaction doesn’t make sense if you don’t do that, so I’ll be covering both the ongoing fight with Lye and the start of the fight with Roy, looking at them together as if they are a whole. The episode starts with a lot of the White Dragon’s Scales mercenaries making light of Lye since they think he’s just one brat, but he moves really quickly, leading to Gaston trying to take him on directly with him being taking a big blow from an attack Lye called the “Fist Lord’s Strike”, which seemed to pack a lot more punch than what Lye had attacked Gaston with a number of episodes back. Otto then used Earth Magic, which he had revealed he had in Season 2, to get Lye away from Gaston since he realized all of them would be in huge trouble if Gaston were to be killed. Otto then noted that he’s surprised by Lye’s lack of finishing blows considering he probably had the opportunity to kill Gaston then and there instead of merely hitting him with one blow. Lye then taunts them, saying that they’re useless for not being able to handle one brat and that he’s nothing compared to the indiscriminate Roy, and in this sense I believe he is referring both to how Roy is not a gourmand like he is and how Roy is unrestrained in dealing with his prey.

And now to the Roy fight, as I mentioned in an earlier episode, Julius reacted to Roy referring to him to Nii-sama, and it’s ’cause deep down he retains the feeling he had a younger brother even though Roy has erased Joshua by eating both his memories and his name, the latter of which causes all proof of your existence to be erased, and when both are eaten, you become like Rem, who is a shell of herself in suspended animation. That’s how Roy could dodge Julius’s Al Clauseria and then counter his 2-spirit combination attack after he demonstrated to Ricardo how much better as a swordsman he was. Then he dropped his swords and said, “Eclipse”, and struck Julius with his fist, which dealt a lot of damage to Julius. When Roy started using Water Magic, Ricardo was baffled that he had mastered sword arts, martial arts, and magic, and Roy had described himself as a humble, nameless mage after Ricardo asked him just what the hell he was, showing that he had gained access to the skills of a mage that he had erased, and perhaps the reason he said Eclipse after he dropped his swords the first time was to show he was switching to someone else’s memories to harvest his/her skills and knowledge, which allowed him to be skilled at martial arts. I believe Lye and Roy can only tap into one person’s memories and skills at a time basing this mainly on how Roy dropped his swords before he said, “Eclipse”, and switched to martial arts against Julius and how he called himself a humble, nameless mage when he used water magic against Ricardo and Julius. If they could tap into more than one person’s skills and memories at a time, Roy wouldn’t be speaking as if he was just a mage or dropping his swords when he intended to change his fighting style if he could just put them away, which shows he tapped into someone’s memories who isn’t used to moving around with swords on his/her person. Ricardo then dispelled the water dragon attack with a roar, leading to Roy being giddy about how it’s a long time anyone survived that attack, which shows that he is indiscriminate as Lye had indicated with him being unrestrained in handling his prey by going all-out from the beginning whereas Lye has seemed to be going easy on them by not dealing any of Otto’s group a finishing blow even though we’ve gotten much more of that fight and only the beginning of this Roy fight. Julius then remarks about why Roy has chosen evil despite his skills, and Roy taunts him with Joshua’s memories, calling him the brother he always idolized due to him picking an appa from a tree for him when he was sick, but Julius has no recollection of that even though clearly feels something deep down given his reaction to Roy’s words. Roy then says with Joshua’s memories that he always felt that he was a burden, but now with Joshua’s memories in tow, he implies it’s great now to be in control, saying he actually resented Julius for picking that appa for him since it’s something he couldn’t do himself at that age. It was then implied that Julius took a blow after rushing towards Lye, and that became a good time to segue into the Capella and Al fight.

Then it segues to Al having split Capella in half from the top of her head to her belly with Capella musing about how many more times will it actually take before he can actually kill her. Al then replies even if he dies a hundred times, he’s not sure that he could ever kill her but that maybe she is the one who hasn’t thought this through since he knew she’d come here which means they were prepared to give her an especially warm welcome with an attack that would shatter her very soul, and Capella just tells him to do it if they went through all that effort to do so. She says that if they did all that for her that her principles won’t let her turn down the thoughtfulness in what they had prepared for her. Al then has a cute interaction with Capella when he says that she’s seriously going to die and that dying hurts and is scary, especially the first time, saying she doesn’t want to do that, showing that Al does indeed have a power that lets him defy death, which was hinted at in Episode 60 when he said that she better get out of there before he dies. Al, for the lulz, even threw in a dirty joke for her about how she should save her firsts for when the time is right, which she really appreciated although she remarked that he’s probably doing that to lie to her, leading her to transform into her black dragon form, asking him which form he likes the most with Al replying that he can never love anyone. Al then steps on a part of the ground that caused the whole place to start collapsing, and he dives into the water.

When Al got out of the water, he nearly took off his helmet, but seeing Anastasia was there, he decided not do it, saying he’s self-conscious. Anastasia says she didn’t expect Capella to take the whole place down, and Al says he was secretly crushed three times, which suggests that Capella killed him three times. Then Felix also joined them, and when Anastasia asked whether it was pointless to hope that Capella had died, Felix remarked that even Anastasia blowing off Capella’s face with magic wasn’t enough and that she thought Anastasia couldn’t, leading to Al drawing his sword against Anastasia since he knows magic is something Anastasia’s not capable of using. I’m not sure who this could be in Anastasia’s body though, whether it’s a shape-shifter or a possession of sorts. Al only backed down ’cause Felix pressed Al’s sword against his skin, causing it to bleed.

The information suggests again that Al may have been the previous hero of the story given he knew the remains of the witch in Priestella is that of Typhon’s and that you shouldn’t give out your real name to the Sin Archbishop of Gluttony. As for why Al is very likely not a future Subaru, Al neither knew about the extent of Capella’s regeneration nor her power to transform into your ideal partner by reading all your reactions to her, showing he had limited to no exposure to her, meaning she may not have been the Sin Archbishop of the Lust during his run-through as the hero of the story. Another point against Al being a future Subaru is that Al can specifically mention that he has been dying to Capella with it implied that she knows that is the case, which Subaru is not permitted to do by Satella when he has the intent to share information about Return By Death. This suggests that Al simply has a different power than Subaru and that it’s not a matter of Al being able to control his power better. Granted, this is not definitive proof that he can’t be Subaru since we don’t know all the rules of Re:Zero’s world. We don’t know whether an Authority can change over time, and if it can, perhaps Al’s Authority used to be identical to Subaru’s before it became whatever it is now.

Capella then returns as she reforms from rats with her missing her eyes leading to her getting the last two rats to conglomerate into her full form. This may indicate that Capella has a minimum mass given when she was missing a couple of pieces of her body she couldn’t fully reform herself. Capella is acting very dere with how Al hit her with such a passionate attack even though it didn’t end doing any permanent damage to her. When Al draws his sword against her, she tells him not to misunderstand since she’s leaving due to her already having done what she wanted to do, and as Anastasia interjects, it’s what the Gospel ordered her to do, which Capella didn’t respond well to, saying that her feelings for them aren’t from some book and that they’re real, describing it as pure love, which triggers Felix, leading to him saying that if they kill her, she bets Crusch’s body will be returned to normal, something Capella shoots down immediately since her and her blood are two separate entities. She then sends out her Demi-Beasts that are alive yet dead since they’re so intent on chasing after her, which Felix makes Felix cry out in tears about how she could do such a thing with Capella remarking in an attempt to provoke Felix that it might be ’cause no one ever told her to not play with corpses. This does get under Felix’s skin since as a healer he probably values life and respects those who have died as opposed to Capella turning corpses into monstrosities and not allowing people to move on. Al then directs them to flee, and Capella tells them if they don’t keep up the fight that more people will die, creating more Demi-beasts in the process, urging them to slaughter them all before she splits her bodies in rats and starts fleeing from the city.

As I have stated before in my previous write-ups, I do not believe that Witch Cult Gospels are true texts that tell the future but are merely meant to keep the world on a particular path given how Regulus’s Gospel made him believe he would meet the Emilia camp again in the first loop of this arc despite it not happening again until the fourth loop. Capella escaping could be the way for the source of the knowledge of the Gospels to ensure that none of Al, Capella, or whoever this Anastasia is, die since if she had pursued them, one or more of them may have died, showing that it’s also keeping the world on a particular path. While they’re fleeing, Felix eventually cries out to somebody to help, leading to Reinhard using his super hearing to hone in on their location, and at Felix’s urging of him to kill all the Demi-beasts, he does. I believe Felix is crying for them to be given death since they currently can’t move on after dying due to what they have become. I believe Reinhard’s eyes were obscured for this week’s episode ’cause he is suffering while fulfilling his duty as the Sword Saint. ‘Cause Reinhard was adamant that the corpse soldier Theresia was just a corpse soldier, meaning he was justified in killing her, Wilhelm said that he had nothing left to say to him and urged “Sword Saint Reinhard-dono” to do his duty in using his immense strength on the battlefield, reducing him to merely being a weapon. Earlier this season, Wilhelm wanted to close the gap between him and Reinhard, but him saying in the previous episode “You’re right. I’m wrong. So I have nothing more to say to you”, followed by referring to Reinhard in an extremely impersonal and respectful way (full title with the -dono honorific) is a pretty clear indication that the gap is not closing anymore as you really don’t hit someone with a “I have nothing more to say to you, so respectfully go away” if you have any intention to be friendly with them afterwards. Reinhard just wants to be treated as a person as anybody else would, and that’s why he reacted so well to Subaru saying he’d make up for any of Reinhard’s shortcomings in Episode 58.

Back to Otto’s group and Lye, Gaston remarks that Lye is pretty damn good at fighting, and he knows this ’cause he was trained by the gardener at Reinhard’s place and can see that Lye’s movements aren’t that of someone who is innately talented but has trained for years. Upon hearing that, Otto realizes that Lye and Roy can gain the knowledge and skills of anyone they eat, and Otto plays dumb. Lye says that unspoken messages, which I’m guessing should actually be “hiding your body language” and was a mistranslation, isn’t a strong point of Otto’s, so maybe she should give up on being a merchant before he gets hurt. Lye then immediately eats one of the mercenaries, Hicks, and nobody remembers him, not even Dynas, the leader of the White Dragon’s Scales. Lye says it’s because this type of thing is so sad that they love to engage in this sort of one-sided reunion in which they taunt the people who have lost someone dear to them much like Roy had also been doing, and when Dynas says that he hasn’t seen the guy who had been eaten before despite clearly on some level knowing there’s something off, Lye taunts him with his memories, suggesting it wasn’t his fault that he couldn’t protect Miriam (and Maylie? The subs said Mary, but there was someone with a similar name from Season 2).

Enraged, Dynas rushes towards Lye and gets knocked back easily with Lye musing that strong emotions are great ’cause they’re so rich, and that’s likely why he takes his time buttering up his prey as opposed to Roy who immediately escalates the situation with his prey, which is why Otto remarks that as a normal person he can’t think of people in terms of how delicious they are, prompting him to ask everyone to not say his name, only for it to be revealed that none of them knew it to begin with. Otto put it out there that he believes that what Lye is doing in letting them fight back is his idea of setting a table for a meal, and Lye remarks that people with keen instincts are hard to finish off and that they get away with it ’cause it makes them all the more tasty. Otto declares that he has won with Lye indicating that Dynas and Gaston are not bad but not worthy of a main course but that after losing Felt it would be bad to also let Otto get away too, especially Rui would rip him a new one, and this is not the first time Lye has mentioned Rui. Given Rui would rip him a new one if he were to let Otto go, it perhaps suggests that Rui is also a Sin Archbishop although who knows where she is given she is nowhere to be seen. Otto then tells everyone if he touches them that they’re as good as dead since he can eat anything he touches. They all rush towards Lye after Otto thanks him for his impeccable manners, and after Gaston creates an opening, Otto grabs Lye and puts two fire magic stones underneath his shirt, which explode on him, revealing many scars. Otto wonders whether those scars made him the way he is, which leads to Lye pestering him about giving out his name to him and also saying he has other ways to get him to talk, such as eating Otto’s fingers one by one. Beatrice then makes a grand entrance saying it’s rude to start eating before everyone is at the table. I’m not sure how she’s awake after she was in a severely mana-depressed state, but absent a proper explanation, maybe she restored enough mana to function after one day of sleep. Otherwise, someone restored her mana through some other means. Otto was about to say Beatrice’s name, but Lye tapped into Rem’s memories and already knew it, and his impersonation of Rem is just so disgusting on every level. He clamours to meet Subaru since Rem had talked about how Subaru would pass judgement on him in Episode 26, which is why he was so eager to meet Subaru in Episode 59. Beatrice is determined to not let Lye meet Subaru given that he’d be extremely hurt, possibly irreparably, which is why she and Otto have to take care of him here and now. Beatrice and Otto don’t really remember Rem themselves, but they have been told about Rem by Subaru and knows how much she means to them.

I just find Lye and Roy to be much more compelling villains than Regulus was, who was just an evil man-child with a broken power. Lye and Roy taunting people with the memories of people they used to know is more effective at making me care their fights both the characters fighting the Witch Cult and the Sin Archbishops themselves. Capella also steals the scene of basically every scene she’s in. The touch with Reinhard being disheartened over how his relationship with Wilhelm has relationship has deteriorated further and the bit with Anastasia being a possible fake was also great to watch, and I believe this episode was Re:Zero at its best.

Re:Zero Episode 63 (Season 3 Episode 13) – Analysis + Important Details

Posted on March 7, 2025 | by anicritic | Leave a Comment

This episode has a number of interesting implications as well as good character work that had been set-up since the premiere of Season 3. Not going to lie, I enjoyed all of that stuff more the last part of the fight between Garfiel and Kurgan, which was animated by Vincent Chansard, who I am not a fan of due how hard he makes it to understand what’s happening on screen.

The episode starts with Garfiel emerging in beast form from the black mass Capella had left there to trick them into believing she was there. As I noted in one of my previous write-ups, it’s a good thing Capella wasn’t also there as both Wilhelm and Garfiel would die if she had been present. I know some people will believe this is plot armour, but if my theory that Gospels are meant to keep the world on a particular path rather than being true texts that show how the holder can attain their dreams, then this is all part of the grand plan from characters 400 years ago to shepherd the world to a good future. Garfiel sees some demibeasts, but as they prepare to strike him, he again sees his hallucination of Elsa, asking if he can really kill them since they bore no grudge to him and were once humans. If you recall from my write-up from Episode 51, Garfiel has trauma both from killing Elsa and from having a bit of imposter syndrome due to the circumstances in which he defeated her since he won due to luck to an extent. It’s no surprise that a teenager like Garfiel struggled with processing his first kill, and I applaud Re:Zero for going in this direction when a lot of series would not even dare broach this topic. Garfiel then backed off, only for Kurgan to kill the demibeasts. You would think since they are on the side of the Witch Cult that he’d leave them alone, but it seems Kurgan still has some sense of individuality despite being a corpse solider and wanted a fair fight, which is why he killed them for interfering. Garfiel flinched at seeing those demibeasts die, which is no surprise since he doesn’t want to see people die as he even gave Elsa a chance to repent after all in Season 2 before continuing his fight with her. He then rushed at Kurgan and got beat down badly with Kurgan knocking Garfiel down many floors of the control tower.

Then it flashed back to the Otto and Felt group against Lye Batenkaitos, and Otto got multiple water dragons to attack Lye after he did a particular step with his feet. The group didn’t know how Otto did that, so I’ll explain it now. It was revealed in Season 1 and reaffirmed in Season 2 that Otto has a Divine Protection, specifically the Divine Protection of the Soul of Language that lets him speak to and understand all living creatures, even those regular people can’t. If you recall from Episode 58, Otto took a day off from the rest of the Emilia camp to go to the man who can repair what was Roswaal’s not-quite-Tome of Wisdom. He probably spoke with water dragons during that time in case the city came under attack since it surely doesn’t take a whole day to speak with one man. I’m guessing he bribed the water dragons with food or something since there isn’t anything else he as a merchant can offer them. Otto then asks why Felt is here in particular and name-dropped Heinkel, and Felt immediately interjects that she left Camberley to watch Heinkel, and I’m guessing that is the the last of three thugs that attacked Subaru in the alley in Season 1 since Rachins is accounted for. Felt was on her way to retrieve something they left at the inn, a powerful metia that a sorcerer in her camp gave to her.

Otto then interrupted her, likely ’cause he heard one of the water dragons crying for help, and it almost escaped the building the water dragons had slammed Lye into but was dragged back into it, which would most likely end in its death eventually. Felt then reveals after some prodding from Otto that Old Man Rom believes the metia is so powerful that even Reinhard would take damage from it, which Otto believes is a good benchmark for what could turn the tides in this fight, leading to him proposing that they stay here while Felt retrieves the metia. Lye then finishes off the last of the water dragons that attacked, and he said that gourmands can be particular about their appetizers, which is again different from how Roy Alphard approaches things. Felt even decides to leave Gaston, the most brawny of three thugs that attacked Subaru in Season 1, who if you recall from a previous episode, has a pregnant wife, with them. Lye then attacks as Felt is running away, and Gaston takes a hit from Lye in place of Felt, using mana flow to strengthen his body to prevent Lye’s attack from doing damage to him. After seeing Gaston’s battle prowess, Lye realizes what sort of plan they actually have. He then notes that with Felt gone that there are three that Rui might like, Otto, Gaston, and the person I presume is the leader of the White Dragon’s Scales. Otto then makes a meta remark that he’s had to fight more this year than most low-level fighters, and he wonders what kind of merchant makes him.

Back to the Al and Capella fight, the beginning of the scene with Capella and Al showed their shadows fighting with each other. After Al does significant damage to Capella, and she starts regenerating, Al says that couldn’t be more disgusting since he isn’t into gore. Capella remarks that nobody likes boys who speak too bluntly and wonders aloud whether all people who scheme in the shadows are like that, accusing Al to be the one who opened the watergate right as everything looked doom for the heroes and the one who killed off the other nine members of the Council of Ten who knew where the remains of the Witch were one by one with no involvement whatsoever from her. Al motions as if he has no idea what she’s talking about even if he probably opened the watergate and factually killed the Council of Ten as Priscilla hinted at in Episode 59. Capella then says she’ll forgive Al for playing dumb if he’ll take off his helmet, take her to bed, and love her, which may be showing that Al is her type of guy, and he just brushes it off while speaking in a higher-pitched voice that he appreciates the sentiment but that they don’t know each other well enough and that he doesn’t want his friends spreading weird rumours. Capella with some snark indicates that she doesn’t believe she’s such a bad option for masochists who are into being strung along by women given she has a penchant for reading into people’s type of ideal woman which has Al protesting only for him to be cut off as Capella transforms into Priscilla after changing her hair colour and probably age as well multiple times to suit Al’s tastes.

Al says that’s a repulsive thing to do and asks where she has seen the princess before, and Capella says she has never seen or have been aware of her, but judging the gestures you give off, the reactions you give, and the bearing you prefer is what she does best. Capella says everything about her should be in line with Al’s tastes, and he just playfully dismisses that by saying that the human race isn’t ready for that sort of expression of love, which is irritating Capella, leading her to ask why he is resisting her and what about her he dislikes, and he just trolls her by saying he doesn’t care, only to confirm that he finds her disgusting, so he actually hates her, to inflict maximum pain on her since Capella seems into him for some reason. Al then uses earth magic to fight Capella, cuts her head off and explodes her body to pieces, thinking that was enough, but it clearly wasn’t. Capella says her opinion of him has skyrocketed for sharing his intent to keep going even when the going gets though, showing that she is still really into him, but Al just keeps resisting her by saying he is more afraid of Priscilla in a bad mood than anyone, even someone who keeps changing appearances, which really pisses Capella off for daring to speak about another woman in her presence, and so she says she’ll teach him some manners with the interaction ending with Al saying the stars sure are aligned against me today.

Regarding Al not knowing the extent of Capella’s regeneration, I think this directly calls into question the theory that Al is a future Subaru since he should know Capella’s powers if that were the case. Thus, I believe this blindspot in Al’s knowledge is due to him actually being born as Subaru’s younger brother by blood and the previous iteration of the hero of the story with Subaru being frozen in time for hundreds of years. Al notably said the stars are aligned against him today, which shows he also has an awareness that his true name, Aldebaran, is based on a star, meaning he probably is an astronomy nerd much like Subaru was, and may have been named specifically due to his relation to Subaru.

Now I will explain how Al factors into this. Subaru means Pleiades in Japanese, and Pleiades is referring to a star cluster in the Taurus constellation. Al’s true name, Aldebaran, is a star in the Taurus constellation that follows the Pleiades star cluster in the night sky. In Arabic, Aldebaran means the follower for that reason. While some of the Arabic meanings for certain stars hint at the powers of Sin Archbishops, perhaps it would be better to consider Al’s name in relation to Subaru since Aldebaran isn’t a Sin Archbishop.

Since Aldebaran follows the Pleiades star cluster, perhaps he was given that name because he was Naoko and Kenichi’s next son after Subaru, which showed a fixation from at least one of his parents on their first son who disappeared. Al told Priscilla not to call him Aldebaran in Episode 16 of Re:zero, and that might be because that name is a constant reminder that his parents loved Subaru more than they loved him.

Since names have power in Re:zero, Aldebaran as a name could very possibly mean that Aldebaran would be the next person to be summoned after Subaru was. For more on why I am partial to Al being Subaru’s brother and the immediate previous iteration of the hero, read this:

A Re:Zero theory: Why Subaru was summoned and Al, quite possibly the brother Subaru never knew and a previous iteration of the Hero

Assuming my assumption about Al is correct, this episode shows either that Al had minimal involvement in fights with Capella when he was the hero of the story or that Capella wasn’t the Archbishop of Lust when he was the hero of the story as otherwise he wouldn’t believe that cutting off her head and making her body explode would kill her. In my theory, it’s mostly the hero and the heroine of the story who are different when the world is reconstructed after its destruction, but there are perhaps other small differences as well, as part of the world’s attempt to break the cycle of being destroyed and reconstructed may involve changing a few things up with the hope that the next iteration of the world will be the key to the end, which would account for something such as Capella being the Sin Archbishop of Lust in the current world but not in the previous iteration of the world.

Back to the Garfiel and Kurgan fight, Kurgan is standing there waiting for Garfiel, who is back to his normal form, to be battle ready again, showing he wants not only a fair fight but also a good fight. We then get a flashback to Garfiel calling Kurgan a living legend. He says that demihumans typically have a high aptitude for magic but that the many-armed race is an exception with comparably low aptitude, so even in the Vollachia Empire (the subs said Volakia in an earlier episode, so I’ll be using Vollachia from now on) where demihumans are a protected class, the many-armed race faced discrimination. It was Kurgan who turned that around when the local lord’s soldiers tried to kill them, turning the tables on all of them by himself, getting his race the acknowledgement they needed. Wilhelm interjected that most members of the many-armed race have four or five arms, but Kurgan was abnormal with eight of them, making him an outcast even among his own tribe, and despite that, he will took up the sword to protect his people. Garfiel indicated that his swords were referred to as Devil Cleavers, and Wilhelm said that he only draws them all against opponents he deems worthy, bringing those opponents great honour. Basically, Garfiel realizes that Kurgan wasn’t treating him as a serious threat. Garfiel then also starts using mana flow to boost the power of his legs, and he was able to get a large scratch on one of Kurgan’s arms in exchange for several blows. He also chips the main sword Kurgan is using before getting pushed to the area close to where the water is flowing out since they’re in the sewers, and as Kurgan strangles him, Garfiel musters up the strength to use mana flow again to destroy the ground underneath him so that they both fall into the water.

Then there’s a rupture in the wall of one of the shelters where Garfiel’s half-sibling are, and a demibeast finds its way into the shelter. As the citizens run to the opposite end of the shelter, Garf’s half-siblings fall to the ground, and Garfiel’s trauma regarding killing rears its ugly head again. He looks toward his brother and sister and finally gets the courage to kill the demibeast and the hallucination of Elsa with the hallucination saying she loves Garfiel with Garf replying that he doesn’t love her since she isn’t her (Ram), the one he actually loves, a callback to Season 2 when Garf let Elsa know he loves Ram during his battle with her. This makes Kurgan a foil to Garfiel since while Garf wasn’t outright an outcast like Kurgan was, he still decided to fight those he wanted to protect, his brethren, even to kill others for the sake of them, while being somewhat of a third wheel since his mother doesn’t remember him and started another family without him. Tappei clearly loves writing Garfiel’s character, and I believe the characters who suffer the most will have the biggest payoff at the end with those characters being Subaru, Crusch, Rem, and Garfiel.

Kurgan then also arrived at the shelter, and after seeing the dead demibeast and the whole shelter cheering for Garfiel, he honours him as a worthy opponent by drawing the rest of his Devil Cleavers. During the fight, Garfiel uses mana flow to launch himself to the ceiling while using earth pillars to block Kurgan’s arms, and in doing so, he managed to ruin one of Kurgan’s eyes in exchange for a slice to his abdomen. Then the strange directing began, and Garfiel rushes up towards Kurgan again using earth pillars to block some of his arms, and he used all the strength he had to destroy two of Kurgan’s Devil Cleavers in exchange for breaking his arms in the process. Kurgan thought he was about to finish off Garfiel, but he didn’t notice that one of his left arms wasn’t working well due to the large scratch Garg had done to him earlier before they reached the shelter in the sewers since he is a corpse soldier and can’t feel pain, and Garfiel uses mana flow again to launch himself to the ceiling and use the earth pillars to block Kurgan’s arms and descend down to bite through one of Kurgan’s arteries in his neck by attacking Kurgan from his left side due to eye being disabled, which was really, really hard to see, and I had watch that more than once with me not understanding until I saw a piece of his neck gone later after the fight had concluded, and I blame the lackluster directing there on my gap in understanding. Kurgan commended Garf and then crumbled to pieces like stone, which I’m assuming is ’cause the corpse soldier magic involves earth magic. Garfiel also looked like he couldn’t believe that he won during that scene, so that plays into his trauma regarding imposter syndrome for feeling that he won against Elsa due to a fluke. After that, Garfiel said noble doesn’t even begin to describe it, probably ’cause Kurgan didn’t use to cheap tricks and just wanted a fair, and more importantly, a good fight. His younger sister than calls for a healer as Garf collapses.

I wonder why Kurgan retained some individuality while Theresia ended up being a killing machine. Kurgan obviously still understands the concepts of honour, respect, and glory given he notably killed the demibeasts that were going after Garfiel ’cause they interfered with his fight, showing he still understood the concept of honour and wanting a fair fight. Later on in the fight, when Garfiel was laying down on the ground, he waited until Garfiel was ready to get back up before fighting, which showed he not only wanted a fair fight but a good fight, which was again shown when he demonstrated respect for Garfiel by fighting will all his Devil Cleavers, but Theresia is just a one-note killer now.

We then flash back to the fight between Wilhelm and Theresia, and he gets a fresh wound from her with him saying he never expected to last long in this fight, which was implied to be due to the old wound he got from her, and he says that he will have plenty of time with his wife when he joins her on the other side but that he will not dream with her being beautiful being why she can’t exist now since she was middle-aged when she died.

Re:Zero Episode 59 (Season 3 Episode 9) Analysis + Important Details

Posted on February 8, 2025 | by anicritic | Leave a Comment

Re:Zero is back after 2 and a half months, and it had some very interesting details that will probably be relevant to the plot in the future, and details like those are why I love series such as Re:Zero and Kusuriya no Hitorigoto (The Apothecary Diaries) since I adore series with very strong long-term planning and foreshadowing. The first two important details are that Priscilla doesn’t completely trust Al since he keeps a lot of secrets from her when Liliana put it out there that she must trust Al a lot since she was leaving him to defend their stronghold at the government office and that Anastasia was keeping secrets of her own from Julius, which has been leading to him increasingly feeling an unseemly guilt from Priscilla’s perspective, and of course, Anastasia retorts that Priscilla shouldn’t make it sound so nasty, showing either a lack of empathy for Julius from Anastasia or a playful jab from Priscilla to get the attention off of herself due to her trust or lack thereof in Al being highlighted. While it may make sense to think that Priscilla was talking about something regarding Anastasia’s arrangement with Kiritaka, I’m more inclined to believe it is referring to something else, which may be brought up again either during Arc 6’s adaption, which is rumoured to be 22-episodes-long after this 16-episode adaptation of the Priestella arc, or a fourth or fifth season. As I’m not a source reader, I don’t know when Tappei intends to flesh out this reveal.

After that, we see the introduction of several of the groups and who they run into, and aside from Wilhelm confiding in Garfiel about his deceased wife, which was probably meant to inspire Garf and motivate him to fight at his best, the two most relevant pieces of info are that Theresia’s soul is being warped and that Priscilla knew that someone got ahead of the Witch Cult’s plan to learn the details of Typhon’s corpse by slaying the other nine members of the Council of Ten aside from Kiritaka. Why the point about Theresia’s soul being warped is important is after Wilhelm slashed off the hood of Theresia’s outfit, the face we saw was that of a young Theresia despite her having died when she was middle-aged when Reinhard was young. In some other fantasy series, modifying or changing someone’s soul can result in that person’s physical appearance changing, which mostly confirms Wilhelm’s belief that her soul is being warped. Back to Priscilla, the Witch Cult’s plan was most likely to kill some of its members to get the remaining members to talk, which the cult can no longer do after the slayings. Priscilla spoke as if that person wasn’t herself, so it was likely either Al or a close associate of hers after the process of elimination. The only named Priscilla associates viewers know of in this arc are Al, Heinkel, and Schult. We know it couldn’t have been Heinkel given the sort of shit he was doing around that time that happened, and little Schult definitely didn’t do it, so that leaves Al unless it was someone yet to be revealed.

A big point from a previous episode is that Al left right as Subaru and his group were getting prepared to fight the Witch Cult in Episode 54, and he said he was looking for Priscilla, but Priscilla confirmed in Episode 58 that he did no such thing, which makes that time period the perfect opportunity for him to kill nine members of the Council of Ten.

More of the presentation this episode indicated that was the case with how Priscilla indicated earlier to Liliana and Anastasia that it’s not a matter of whether she trusts Al as there’s a lot he doesn’t tell her. Perhaps Al didn’t tell her why exactly he needed to kill the other members aside from Kiritaka instead of simply relocating them.

If you recall from one of my theories, I believe Al was the previous iteration of the hero of the story in the immediate previous iteration of the world. Perhaps Al took Beatrice’s not-quite-Tome of Wisdom from that previous world and is acting based on knowledge from Echidna, meaning there were more than just 2 copies since Al had a copy from his previous world. That may be why the First District’s watergate was opened right as Subaru would’ve fallen to his death, and that is ’cause Al’s acting with instructions from Echidna. In a previous write-up, I suggested that Al accepted Echidna’s contract unlike Subaru when he was the hero of the story, but maybe that wasn’t it, and Al has a different sort of arrangement with her. He must know Echidna on a personal level to some extent given his distaste for Emilia making others a priority before herself, which appears to be the reason Echidna appears to dislike Emilia even if she has a deep respect for Emilia and Satella if one of my previous theories is correct, showing that Echidna’s tastes rubbed off on Al.

When the show flashes back to Reinhard and Subaru, Regulus is exasperated that Emilia chose Subaru over him. He could understand if he had lost in love to Reinhard, the manliest of men there are, but losing to Subaru is an insult to him, especially since Regulus had forgotten about ever having met Subaru in Episode 53, which called back to Al saying that the Witch Cult had never lost before, and the reason they never made any preparations in case of a counterattack from their group was that no dragon would care what the ants at its feet are planning. This is also relevant later on with Otto, Felt, and the White Dragon’s Scales, what I had previously thought was an item but was actually an armed group employed by Kiritaka that helped Otto escape the first time he met Sin Archbishop of Gluttony, Lye Batenkaitos. Lye had no recollection about meeting Otto, which was shown by how Lye said so you met us (Roy Alphard) before meeting us (him) when Otto mentioned he thought the Sin Archbishop of Gluttony went by a different name, showing Lye completely forgot about Otto much like Regulus did regarding Subaru. Thank goodness I have exposure to someone who knows Japanese as he indicated that Crunchyroll botched the translation and that Otto said something along the lines of “You’re different from the one at the government office” instead of the Sin Archbishop of Gluttony went by a different name, which completely changed the translation. The correct translation shows that Otto thought that Lye was a fake Sin Archbishop at first, but this encounter now shows that Lye is the real deal, meaning there is at least two Sin Archbishops of Gluttony.

Lye then said that now that you’re all here you might as well help us look for the hero who will judge us. This is actually a callback to Season 2 with how Rem said that her great hero, Subaru, would bring them to justice. As Lye was the one who ate Rem’s memories and could likely feel the strong emotions Rem felt about how Subaru would defeat them, Lye hearing Subaru’s broadcast hyped him up big time for a showdown against Subaru. I don’t think the narrative will allow that to happen in this Priestella arc as Subaru’s group is really strapped for battle-ready personnel with how it’s just Garfiel and Wilhelm against Kurgan and Theresia, Julius and Ricardo against Roy, and Priscilla against Sirius. There’s just no way Subaru will be able to help with Regulus’s wives and Regulus himself and fight Lye, so this showdown will probably be postponed for a future arc.

Otto motioned to bring Lye to Subaru in exchange for his life as a negotiation tactic, but Lye was furious as he had a very visceral negative reaction to Otto being a merchant who would put a price on anything to line his pockets, so it’s clear he and Roy were either ripped off badly by a merchant or were slaves to one. As Lye prepares to attack, Otto used his Divine Protection to get two Water Dragons to attack Lye before it skips over to Julius and Ricardo engaging Roy Alphard, who is another Sin Archbishop of Gluttony. Interestingly enough, Julius forgo calling himself Juli when the last time he engaged Roy he was careful not to use Subaru and Crusch’s actual names, calling them Little Girl User and Valkyrie instead. Perhaps during his last battle with Roy, which was offscreen, Roy revealed he already knew Julius’s name, potentially due to Julius being a well-known member of the Royal Guard with very distinct physical features. With how episodes this season not being extended-length for the most part aside from Episode 57, it’s possible an explanation for Julius’s decision was cut out of the adaptation although it’s possible to still infer the reason for that decision.

Back to Subaru and Emilia, it seems Regulus’s wives truly fear Regulus on every level. Earlier in the episode, Subaru remarked that they have nerves of steel with how none of the wives reacted to Regulus threatening to kill them all if Reinhard and Subaru advanced any further. Now, they can’t come to believe Regulus can be beaten even though Reinhard had performed a miracle in front of their eyes with how he came back to life after dying due to his Divine Protection of the Phoenix. It’ll take a lot of work to win them over, but I believe Subaru and Emilia have to be able to do something about this, as otherwise they will never be able to stop Regulus’s apparent invincibility. As Reinhard hinted at earlier in the season, he has the ability to wish for any Divine Protection he wants, which is how he could transmit his thoughts to Subaru while fighting Regulus as it seems he received the same Divine Protection that Liliana has. It seems Reinhard also has super hearing as otherwise he wouldn’t have been able to hear what Subaru had been saying. It seems one of Subaru’s plans is to have Reinhard kick Regulus really far away to give them alone time with the wives, so Subaru quite possibly thinks Regulus’s wives might know the secret behind Regulus’s invincibility.

As we get back to Wilhelm and Garfiel towards the end of the episode, Garfiel takes a big blow from Kurgan, and his trauma from his fear of death has again reared its ugly head, and Garf wills himself to continue on as he reasons the only thing he’s good for is fighting. I wonder how they will get out of this situation as retreat is not an option given how completely stretched thin the forces of the side fighting the cult is, and if one part of their group fails they all fail since they must take seize control of all four control towers at once. Garf realizes that the black piece of mass is not actually Capella after all, which may be a blessing in disguise ’cause if she were really with the two corpse soldiers, he and Wilhelm would certainly die.

Felix is then caught off guard by Capella who pretended to be several people on his side, but she’s here to wreak havoc, and given Priscilla left Al to defend the government office, it looks like we’ll have an Al and Capella showdown even though they aren’t in the same room yet. Felix should not be able to put up a good fight against Capella due to Capella’s insane regeneration. A lot is happening this episode, but things are definitely moving along, and I’m looking forward to more strong content from this season.

Re:Zero Episode 58 (Season 3 Episode 8) Analysis + Important Details

Posted on November 23, 2024 | by anicritic | Leave a Comment

Okay, I ended up being right that Otto may have been in possession of the not-quite-Tome of Wisdom originally used by Roswaal, but I was wrong about the details. I thought it seemed too convenient that he ended up being where Felt, Reinhard, and Heinkel was while having his zodda bugs ready to distract Heinkel, but it seems it really was a coincidence like Otto had said it was. Apparently, the tome was left with a professional trying to restore it to a usable state, which was the reason Otto split up from the group in Episode 51.

And in comes Liliana with her new song that she came up with right on the spot, “Crazy Obsessed With Everything About You”. Given Reinhard revealed that he can wish for any power, and he will gain a Divine Protection for that power, resulting in him gaining his new Divine Protection of Judgement, which allows him to see and understand what Divine Protections other people have and what they do, Reinhard saw that Liliana has the Divine Protection of Telepathy, which may show that Priscilla is into Subaru. It’s possible that Liliana came up with this song ’cause she felt Priscilla’s affection for Subaru during the short time they were together outside and felt Priscilla’s mood improving as she approached the meeting place where Subaru would be. Priscilla notably announced that she is giving Subaru another reward for calming Priestella’s citizens down in allowing herself to be included in the group’s plan. She may have called his broadcast ugly, but ultimately respects results, but I think part of her just wants to be involved with Subaru. Given how Priscilla poked at Liliana later in the episode to get her to agree to accompany her in fighting Sirius, she may have been trying to poke at Subaru in a similar way to assess his manhood or banter with him, but Subaru still has deep insecurities over his self-worth. Priscilla even said after Subaru began to remark about how Priscilla must also be here ’cause of Liliana’s presence that of course she came here in person, most likely ’cause of his broadcast despite on the surface calling it ugly, addressing him as “fool”, much like she did in Episode 56. Maybe she has a thing for fools given Heinkel is a part of her camp.

Liliana’s songs tend to have meaning with her singing a song about a lonely wanderer (herself), age differences in love (regarding Subaru and Beatrice even though they aren’t romantically interested in each other), the Sword Demon’s Love Ballad (when Wilhelm was known to have visited the city), a song about dragon blood, and a song about how awesome life is to ease the mind of the city’s citizens, insulating them from Sirius’s Authority of Wrath, so I find it hard to believe that Liliana randomly decided to sing a love song for no reason but was inspired to do so. That’s what makes me believe the song is about Priscilla being into Subaru. Priscilla also notably gave Subaru two rewards on the same day, clearly showing Subaru favour. Liliana may have noticed how Subaru being around lifted Priscilla’s mood during the short time they were together in addition to whatever effect Subaru’s broadcast had on Priscilla, and that would be her inspirations for the new song.

Priscilla also made a good observation that Al was helping that group instead of accompanying her and forcing her to look for Schult on her own shortly after she made her entrance, calling Al and Schult rude for making her do that, but I believe part of it is show to demonstrate her lording over her power to outsiders due to her possibly carefully crafting her image to be this way. Al certainly has his own agenda, whatever it is, given his independence from his master. When Priscilla declared her intention to join the battle against the Witch Cult, he tried to talk her down from doing it, which is similar to how he wanted Emilia to be coddled and protected by Subaru instead of strong and independent. Given this recurring behaviour of how he wants a woman protected by a man and to tamp down their confidence/strength, it wouldn’t surprise me if he indeed lost to Roswaal if he was the immediate previous Hero of the story as I pose with how Roswaal wanted Emilia to be completely dependent on Subaru. Re:Zero Season 3 Breaktime Episode 4 also showed that Subaru physically needs Beatrice around due to his gate being destroyed making it so that his body can’t regulate its mana levels, and given we know Al does not need to hang around a spirit, Al’s gate most likely didn’t break when he was the hero, possibly ’cause he faced a crushing defeat to Roswaal, which set up his heroic delusions remark to Subaru.

Otto and Subaru have a 1-on-1 conversation as Al brings Priscilla up to speed, and Otto reveals he picked up the charred remains of the not-quite-Tome of Wisdom a year ago ’cause he wants to check its contents due to him not trusting Roswaal as far as he could throw him. He said that aside from what had engineered at the Sanctuary, Roswaal had all sorts of schemes that others let slide. Subaru then implies that they don’t let him get away with everything but that they need his strength. Otto says that it’s fine and that he’ll be wary enough of Roswaal for both him and Emilia. He said that as Subaru’s internal affairs officer, Roswaal didn’t behave as if he were up to any conspiracies or schemes that would weight on his conscience, but he was worried that Roswaal had set up some plans with a time lag so that they wouldn’t be able to see them coming. Otto wanted to ensure that nobody from their camp could be hurt by Roswaal again, which is very good reasoning that makes him a very good ally to those he believes in, although the Emilia camp probably doesn’t have anything to worry about unless Roswaal loses his desire to live due to the curse on his soul that will incinerate his soul ’cause of him losing his bet to Subaru in Season 2. Otto revealed his intent to retrieve the not-quite-Tome of Wisdom and that he could do it without any help from the group after Subaru remarked about not being able to spare anyone to help him do it since they’d be focused on the control towers, reminding Subaru that he was able to navigate around this danger-filled city and bring them the Sword Saint. Wilhelm then called for Subaru ’cause Crusch requested that he fetch Subaru.

When Subaru is in Crusch’s room, Felix tells him not to push Crusch given she’s in critical condition. Felix has blood on his face and clothes, which shows he probably tried to forcibly take the dragon blood out of Crusch’s body with that intervention failing completely and utterly. Everything below Crusch’s head and even part of her face have completely changed colour and filled with many veins, which shows she got the short end of the stick compared to Subaru with the curse of the black dragon blood. It’s hard seeing someone who was so charismatic and a natural leader end up like this. Subaru upon briefly touching Crusch’s left arm was in pain and transferred some of Capella’s black dragon blood from Crusch’s body into his own. When he saw that this improved Crusch’s condition, he did it again but for a longer portion of time by touching her face, and it resulted in Crusch’s face becoming normal again. As I indicated in Episode 56, it appears Subaru has a resistance to the curse to his dormant Ulgarm curses from Season 1 fighting with the black dragon curse, which weakens the black dragon curse so that Crusch saw more relief than Subaru gained in symptoms of the curse. Subaru intended to do more for Crusch, but Crusch wisely dissauded him as if they both become unable to fight the outcome would be fatal. She tells him to instead to assure that she can leave everything to him, which he does. All throughout that entire interaction, Crusch was looking to Subaru since him being okay had resulted in him being her hope. She not once looked towards Felix, her knight, and that must’ve really hurt Felix, which Felix alluded to with how he was powerless to do anything to help the one he wants most when Subaru said that there still many people who will require Felix’s aid.

When Subaru finally stepped back outside and showed Wilhelm his hand, which Wilhelm was undoubtedly grateful for, Wilhelm shared the identities of the two strong Witch cultist who were with Capella, “Eight-Arms” Kurgan, formerly the Vollachia Empire’s most powerful swordsman, and Theresia van Astrea, the previous Sword Saint. Wilhelm revealed during the demihuman war several decades ago when he was in his youth there was a person who used the forbidden art of corpse manipulation. He revealed that that individual is long gone but that the art still exists and that those resurrected were referred to as corpse soldiers. Wilhelm pleads to Subaru not to tell Reinhard about Theresia. He reveals to Subaru that the Divine Protection of the Sword Saint is a Divine Protection that is inherited, which makes it different from all other Divine Protections. That Divine Protection was passed on to Reinhard when Theresia was fighting the White Whale, and ’cause Wilhelm was adamant that Theresia give up fighting since it was his job as the stronger of the two to protect her, she suddenly became very ordinary on the battlefield, which he clearly regretted since he indirectly caused her to die.

If you recall from Season 1, Wilhelm insisted that ’cause Theresia had a face like hers that she was not suited to the battlefield and that he would take the sword away from her. That flashback always pissed me off and came across as really sexist and was a big yikes despite it taking place in a medieval setting. Theresia also notably said in the flashback when Wilhelm defeated her in a duel that she wants to hear him say he loves her, and Wilhelm promised to do it someday with it being implied that it never happened as he only said it after he killed the White Whale… I’m glad to see that Wilhelm has wised up and realized that him preventing Theresia from fighting in an effort to protect her given his views led to her being mostly helpless after she lost her Divine Protection of the Sword Saint due to Reinhard inheriting it. It shows he has changed with his realization he caused her death. Even if Theresia personally didn’t want to continue fighting, which is probably she constantly asked Wilhelm if he likes flowers and why Wilhelm said she never wanted to pick up a sword, I believe she should have at least trained herself in self-defense instead of fighting. He rebuked Reinhard when he inherited the Divine Protection of the Sword Saint as he could not forgive young Reinhard for being saddled with a fate far too heavy for someone still mourning his grandma. Wilhelm says clearly that Reinhard bears no responsibility for Theresia’s death, which rings true since the rift with Reinhard was one of his three biggest regrets that were alluded to in Episode 51. Wilhelm doesn’t want Reinhard to be burdened with having to deal with Theresia, and it shows the love he has for his grandson. When Subaru says that they don’t know when the corpse soldiers will show up, Wilhelm asserts that Theresia will definitely come find him, most likely ’cause he believes in fate.

Back in the group’s meeting room, Priscilla insists she will take on Sirius from the Fourth District with Liliana’s help. Priscilla believes Liliana’s singing can counter Sirius’s Authority, and when Subaru wondered there was a way to test that, Reinhard received the Divine Protection I mentioned earlier in this episode and saw that Liliana’s ability would indeed be able to stop Sirius’s Authority, so the group finally settles on Priscilla fighting Wrath when they were deadset against it at first. Next Subaru brings up that the Lust faction with the two strong cultists and the demi-beasts are probably where most of the Witch Cult’s forces are concentrated, and he wants Wilhelm and Garfiel to be the ones to take them on. When Garfiel protests, saying that they need to save Emilia, Subaru reminds him that he has his own score to settle as it was due to those two cultists that Mimi is close to death. Wilhelm volunteers himself to fight Capella’s faction, but Reinhard objects ’cause he believes Wilhelm’s mind isn’t clear right now due to what happened to Crusch. Wilhelm says a bunch of things to get the point across that he is not to be underestimated and urges Subaru to choose him for the task, which Subaru was already going to do as he wants Reinhard fighting Regulus since it’ll be a fight with the strongest against the invincible. Garfiel begs Reinhard to help Subaru and Emilia, and Reinhard agrees as long as Garfiel promises that he will see through the mission at all costs and that they will both win. Garfiel probably needed to hear that due to him being low on confidence after letting Mimi get hurt so badly and having his punch be easily blocked by Reinhard, and having Reinhard in addition to Ricardo in Episode 54 put their faith in Garfiel might be just what Garfiel needed. Subaru says he’ll do whatever he can to cover for Reinhard in areas he’s lacking, which has Reinhard shocked, as he has probably never been told that before due to his immense strength ever since he was a young boy and him saying he will have faith that Subaru will fill in in the areas he will fall short might be the first time he has ever placed his faith in another person. Julius then says that he and Ricardo will take on Gluttony, but they still don’t know that there is more than one Sin Archbishop of Gluttony, so I wonder how that will go.

At Regulus and Emilia’s wedding, Regulus is amazed at Emilia’s beauty and remarks that he was right to keep seat number 79 open. He remarks that there was a woman he thought was the perfect fit for that seat when he first met, but he deemed her unsuitable before they married and left it open. I had previously speculated that Regulus chose his wives’ positions subjectively based on who he finds most attractive, but this episode calls that into question with this info likely showing that he chooses wives to fill particular seats based on particular physical characteristics. Regulus says that as a wife of his, Emilia will be forbidden from smiling and having any change of expression ’cause some women become ugly when they smile, and it might be the case that seeing a woman genuinely happy with a man who will treat her right pisses him off since it reminds him of his own failures as a man. This might be why Regulus was so enraged after seeing Fortuna return to fight with Petelgeuse in Season 2. Pandora told Regulus to calm his anger due to beauty of the love Fortuna and Petelgeuse had together, which resulted in him striking Pandora with all his might with the intent of killing her. Emilia then talks about how she believe marriage is supposed to be a happy thing, a ritual embodying the desire two people have for each other to be together. She then asks Regulus why he addresses his wives using numbers, and Regulus retorts by saying that being fixated on what people called is the same as being fixated on looks, the most shallow form of relationship there is, which shows extreme hypocrisy since looks are all that matters to Regulus with him even threatening to erase anyone who moves from the neck down since he doesn’t want to destroy a beautiful face once Emilia repeatedly brings up Subaru, much to Regulus’s chagrain. Regulus’s wives were terrified during the entire exchange as they fear Regulus and his temper deeply. When Emilia finally responds by saying she won’t be Regulus’s woman, Regulus is infuriated and is about to kill her right as Reinhard kicks open the door of the venue and knocking Regulus away. Subaru and Reinhard both had to introduce themselves given Regulus probably doesn’t remember Subaru due to seeing most men as ants who are beneath his attention, and Subaru coolly ends the episode by saying that he objects to the union. It was great that Emilia talked back to Regulus in such a manner as I’m sure none of his other wives were willing to do so out of fear of him. It goes to show how she has such faith that Subaru will save her and that she will eventually fall for him, not wanting to live a life where she is subservient to Regulus.

I guess this is as good of a time as any to take a break before Re:Zero Season 3 returns in February. I wonder whether Subaru will die any more times given the OP of the first part showed him looping after going right at Regulus, but that might have been misdirection since it showed him with Beatrice, who is out of commission due to being low on mana.

Re:Zero Episode 55 (Season 3 Episode 5) Analysis + Important Details

Posted on November 4, 2024 | by anicritic | Leave a Comment

I found this to be quite a powerful episode with potentially lasting consequences.

Continuing on with Regulus and Emilia, Regulus said that Emilia has shown him a new way of thinking when she responded to his question by asking what is a virgin since she had never heard the term before as it shows she has a virgin soul, which he thought made Emilia the very picture of his ideal woman as he probably prefers sheltered women since they are easier to dominate, and dominating is something he very much enjoys doing given he told Wife Number 184 she is a good girl for no longer smiling when she carried out her tasks at his instruction. Given Emilia is considered Wife Number 79 even though he has someone in the 184th position, he probably numbers his wives based on how physically attracted to them he is, which may have been hinted at in Episode 53 when Regulus responded that having a pretty face is all that matters when it comes to love. He likely has many placeholders for how attracted he is to a certain person based on all the wives he’s ever had, and Emilia’s beauty may have matched whoever used to be in the 79th position. Wife Number 184 made it clear that Regulus merely sees those he deems his wives as objects given she indicated whether they want to be his wife is irrelevant, so he’s some nasty piece of work. Emilia remarked that Regulus reminds her of some evil king she read about in a book, to which Wife Number 184 said that that it is a fitting description and that he’s a king in his own right, specifically worthy of the title, “Little King”, which almost certainly has some significance since Re:Zero has no filler. As an aside, Regulus indicating that Emilia having a virgin soul showed him a new way of thinking in that it’s possible to live life up until that point without knowing what a virgin is suggests to me, although I could be mistaken, that he doesn’t take child brides and may only come for women who are of age since it shows he has never encountered a woman who didn’t know what the term virgin means. I believe everything in Re:Zero is intentional to the point that that line may have been included to let viewers know Regulus is undoubtedly evil but not SO evil as to seek out kids.

Back on the roof, Julius reminds Subaru what he set out to do when he was extremely angry after meeting the Sin Archbishop of Gluttony, Roy Alphard, for thinking he had eaten Rem’s name and memories, which resulted in her ending up in suspended animation, and it wasn’t even Roy that did it but Lye. Rem was his strongest emotional support, so it’s no surprise he reacted the way he did. Julius refers to Subaru as “Little Girl User” and Crusch as “The Valkyrie” to avoid having their names be eaten by Roy. I didn’t get it in Episode 54, but after a second episode of Crusch being afraid of being in the air, I see that she is afraid of heights, which is why she was screaming in fear when Subaru carried her through the updraft, when he jumped over to the window of the office where the broadcast metia was, and why Julius told Subaru to take care of Crusch in Episode 54 and to look after her in Episode 55.

When Subaru and Crusch are in the building, they see a dragon that is not happy with them when they motion to get closer. Crusch downs the dragon and they rescue a small girl they believe is a hostage who they don’t realize is actually the Sin Archbishop of Lust, Capella, who has the power to shapeshift at will. Capella points Subaru to the room where the hostages are, and the hostages have all become giant flies as a result of Capella’s dragon blood which transforms those who succumb to its curse. Capella knocked Crusch unconscious while Subaru was checking in on the hostages, and she stepped on Crusch, which prompted Subaru to tell Capella to get her leg off of her, to which Capella responded whether he’s infatuated with her beautiful legs or just Crusch, who she called female meat, saying she does have quite an erotic figure as she stepped on Crusch’s breasts. Subaru responded by saying Capella is not worthy of holding her Crusch under a foot and launches a piece of the building at Capella with his whip, which she easily started regenerating her wounds from. In the meantime, she sprouted a long tail and knocked Subaru to the side with it before asking if her beauty rendered him speechless. This is the second time Capella has tried to fish for a compliment, so there may be something more underneath the surface here with an insecurity.

Subaru asks her if she’s a dragon that takes human form, and Capella says Subaru displays irrationality that makes him a moron for coming to the conclusion, and she proceeded to beat the shit out of him, which shows she is likely a human who somehow has dragon blood in her body, and she incidentally said that she’d transform into the kind of girl he likes just for him during that exchange. She then hinted to Subaru what the passed out dragon and flies really were since he didn’t get it, and when he finally realized the reality of the situation, he questioned why she did that. She prodded him by asking if he found it disgusting, to which Subaru called it blood-curdling. Capella coolly says that it’s so disgusting and repulsive that it makes him hate her. She says seeing what he saw regarding the flies and the dragon made him hate her on a visceral level, and that’s the “right” answer. She said that no one could love creatures like those. Subaru then requests for her to kill him, to which she says she’d never do something so barbaric and throws out that she wants as many people as possible, for as long as possible, as deeply as possible to love her as being the reason she doesn’t kill him ’cause it’s her wish, which is quite odd given she’s been pushing him to hate her, so I take it that she does have an insecurity after all, probably about her own worth/beauty.

Subaru then makes a move to save Crusch, and Capella said that Subaru always ends up drooling over that female meat ’cause he wants her so bad. Subaru notes that there’s already someone he likes, and Capella remarks that can he really swear he hasn’t had lewd thoughts about Crusch for even a second? She asked him doesn’t he want to stroke Crusch’s hair or kiss her lips. Capella then raged about how Subaru shouldn’t dare take his carnal desire for the one he fancies he can’t speak of in the open and call it love. She then proceeds to transform into Emilia although without the right outfit and without the hair clip, which shows one of Capella’s powers may be to able to read your psyche and be able to transform into an approximation of your ideal lover. This is likely given she was able to read into what Subaru thought of his relationship of Emilia and then belittle him by suggesting he couldn’t possibly love Emilia if she were a fly. With all of this content, I am confident I can make a preliminary Capella character analysis that I will save for another post.

Capella then rips off Subaru’s leg and notes that Subaru and Crusch are both dying, and she started injecting her dragon blood into her and then Subaru, which the dragon Crusch had defeated reacted strongly to as seeing Capella do that probably reminded the dragon of how most of the hostages had become flies, clearly having gained sympathy for Crusch and Subaru. Given Garfiel’s mom’s husband was the only character introduced so far that works in this government office, he probably became this blue-eyed black dragon since their eye colours match. The dragon then blasted a hole through the office as Julius, Garfiel, and Wilhelm’s fight against the strong Witch cultists continued.

Back at the Muse office, Kiritaka reveals that he has learned that no one can get in contact with any members of the Council of Ten aside from himself. He believes it must be the work of the Witch Cult. He tells Anastasia to prepare to evacuate, but she tells him not to throw his life away, which surprises him ’cause he thought Anastasia would say something more self-serving, to which Anastasia says that she does business under the motto, “Your friendly neighbourhood shop.” And this brings me back to Season 1 when Anastasia directly gave Subaru a lesson in negotiating for business when she publicly humiliated him in exchange for a dragon carriage. While Subaru’s behaviour at the time had been clearly self-destructive, she personally helped Subaru get something he needed, all while squeezing the last bit of useful info from him with the knowledge that he had left the Crusch camp on a sour note, only giving him what he wanted after he revealed that Russell Fellow had been to Crusch’s mansion. Sure on the outside it may have seemed like Anastasia was being sadistic, deriving from pleasure from Subaru’s humiliation, but Subaru was pretty much a lost cause at that point, and I believe Anastasia gave him some tough love ’cause it was sad seeing someone walk the path that he was on, and this episode confirms that was what had happened.

Sirius then smashes right through a building, which would have killed Anastasia had Kiritaka not caught her by acting quickly. After remembering Sirius taking a direct blow from Reinhard and be all right, I guess she has to be pretty damn strong after all. Sirius then applauds them for working together to stay alive. When Anastasia reveals that she knows it’s the Sin Archbishop of Wrath, Sirius says she’s embarrassed. Sirius approaches the pair with the intent to kill and Hetaro and Tivey come in to save them even though they’re wounded ’cause of Mimi’s wound from the strong female regular Witch cultist due to their Divine Protection of Trisection causing them to share the wound, which is likely why Mimi hasn’t already died. Hetaro and Mimi springing into action made Anastasia believe that Mimi had perished, but Felix indicated that he used a forbidden method to prevent the wound from getting even worse, which she had also done for Subaru’s leg in Episode 53 after Regulus had attacked him. Anastasia tells Hetaro and Tivey she’ll buy them 2 minutes of time, and Hetaro and Tivey should theoretically be safe from Sirius’s Authority since Sirius isn’t within Mimi’s line of sight, and since you have to see Sirius to fall under her control, Mimi being holed up somewhere should shield Hetaro and Tivey from the effects of Sirius’s Authority. Anastasia then tells Felix to get Mimi and the others who were wounded out and says that she’ll meet him outside. When Anastasia and Kiritaka run into his guards, he says to leave the rest to them while she leaves. He says he is entrusting the city to her, which she says isn’t fair.

Back to the situation with Felt as a hostage, Felt sees a bunch of zodda bugs which come to distract Heinkel, letting Reinhard pin his father to a wall, and with his reluctance to do anything, Felt smashed Heinkel’s head with a bottle of booze, knocking him out so that Reinhard could tie him up. Otto reveals his presence and that he had been looking for a place to hide ’cause of his encounter with Lye, the Sin Archbishop of Gluttony. Apparently, white dragon scales saved him somehow. After that, I’m guessing Lye probably wasn’t too focused on pursuing Otto to eat him given he said Otto won’t even amount to an appetizer, so Otto most likely didn’t have to do all that much hiding. I have to more to say about this after a later reveal towards the end of the episode. Felt then tells Reinhard to go help Subaru and that she’ll take Heinkel to the nearest shelter, which Reinhard reluctantly agreed to. Felt doesn’t know what to about Heinkel, but then two of the thugs from Season 1 who attacked Subaru show up, and Felt commented on their great timing.

The Witch cultists then toll the bell and start flooding the city, and the black dragon/Garfiel’s mom’s husband attempted to carry away Crusch and Subaru, but after Capella latched onto the dragon, Subaru fell off the dragon as the dragon attempted to get away. Emilia is horrified seeing the destruction, and Capella makes three more demands in addition to Typhon’s remains, the Tome of Wisdom that’s been brought into the city, the artificial spirit that’s been chilling in the city, and that the wedding with the silver-haired girl that’s to be held in the city won’t be interrupted although she doesn’t really care about that last demand.

Regarding the Tome of Wisdom, Echidna’s Authority of Greed is the Tome of Wisdom as was revealed in Season 2. Echidna made two “imitations” of her Tome of Wisdom, and Roswaal colloquially called his copy the Tome of Wisdom given they had no actual name. I personally call it the not-quite-Tome of Wisdom. If you recall towards the end of Season 2, Echidna spoke in her own voice through Ryuzu Shima’s body in a moment she was disgusted with Emilia’s selflessness, and I believe this shows that Echidna was successful in her immortality experiment. Given Beatrice can use teleportation and portal spells, she most likely learned it from Echidna, the one who created her, meaning when Ryuzu Shima’s body disappeared with the original Ryuzu Meyer, Echidna had faked her own death although Emilia had not realized it

I believe that neither Roswaal’s not-quite Tome of Wisdom nor Witch Cult Gospels are true future-telling texts but texts connected to Echidna’s mind through magic that she has been using to control the world’s events. Regulus saying in Episode 51 that fate would bring him and the Emilia camp together again despite that not happening again until the 4th loops suggests that Gospels don’t actually tell the future but are meant to keep the world on a specific path that Echidna, Satella, Pandora, and likely others as well all desire.

So based on Capella’s demand, either Echidna herself is in the city with her actual Authority, or someone from the Emilia camp picked up Roswaal’s not-quite Tome of Wisdom ’cause it wasn’t burned to a crisp after all as viewers were led to believe. I had thought it was very peculiar that Otto was hiding out where Felt, Heinkel, and Reinhard were given Episode 51 showed that none of the other camps (aside from Priscilla’s) knew that Anastasia had invited them to Priestella, so he shouldn’t have had any idea where they were staying, so after that reveal at the end about the Tome of Wisdom, Otto is likely the one in possession of what they’re looking for if it’s not Echidna herself with the genuine article in her Tome of Wisdom. Perhaps one might think that Roswaal would’ve checked to see if his Tome had truly been burned, but I believe the events of Season 2 show otherwise. Roswaal, after seeing Ram drop his not-quite-Tome of Wisdom in flames, launched a powerful attack at her, likely ’cause of the intense frustration and anger he felt over Ram doing that since he had been do dependent on the Tome and ’cause Ram was his loyal servant, which made her betrayal feel even more overbearing. After that, he was so intently focused on Ram that I can see him having overlooked checking to see whether his Tome was actually burned since he wouldn’t have been so mad as to launch such a powerful attack at her if he hadn’t thought it was a done deal.

The artificial spirit Capella is demanding is most likely Beatrice given Echidna indicated that she was highly involved in her birth in Season 2. More to support this is that Puck was revealed to have been sent by Echidna to find Emilia in the past in The Frozen Bond OVA with a woman’s speech being denoted by a special font when a woman forced Puck into a contract by which he would lose his memories if he entered into a contract with Emilia with that special font having been revealed to be denoting Echidna’s speech in Season 2, making it likely that both Puck and Beatrice were created by Echidna, which makes Puck calling Beatrice her little sister make sense and gives context and meaning to Beatrice referring to Echidna as mother.

As for that bit about Regulus and Emilia’s wedding, as I’ve previously posted that I believe Witch Cult Gospels are meant to keep the world on a particular path that a group of characters from 400 years ago desires rather than be true forecasters of the future, I believe all three additional demands Capella made were likely due to instruction from her Gospel, and that bit with the wedding was meant to let Subaru know that the wedding is happening soon so that he can stop it even though he had made securing the government office with its powerful metia as his first priority.